Rogers Lowers BYOD Fee To $40 Matching Bell And TELUS

The Canadian wireless scene is ever changing – if you don’t like what you see one day, simply wait for a week or two and something is bound to change. To make matters worse, the Big Three – Rogers, Bell and TELUS – all follow each other so closely, that if one stopped suddenly, the others would run right into each other…can anybody say, ‘price fixing’? The Canadian Government is so concerned about adding a fourth player to increase competition, it is as if, they never realize the price fixing going on right under their very noses.

TELUS started by ‘adjusting’ the price of its plans, just last month. Rogers followed suit, and lowered their least-expensive share plan to $70 per month. Bell quickly followed, so to counter that move, Rogers lowered its monthly Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to a respectable $40. This was after they had raised it to $50 earlier in the year. TELUS is still at $40 a month and Bell upped theirs to $45 a month. For a while this year, the BYOD was about the only thing that differentiated their pricing among the three. The BYOD price of $40 versus the normal $60 for a Smartphone can help save the customer up to $480 over a two-year contract ($60 – $40 = $20 x 24 months = $480).

With all of these carriers, there is always a give and take somewhere, and this lowering the BYOD to $40, also prompted Rogers to reclassify one of their more popular devices, the Samsung Galaxy S4, from a Smart Picks at $50 a month to a Smartphone, which is $60 a month! Rogers is taking a year and a half old smartphone and charging the same as if you were using the new Galaxy S5 or LG G3, etc. It does not look like any other devices were reclassified.

The culmanation of all of this is still a positive move for Rogers’ customers, but one that would have been unnecessary had Rogers not raised the BYOD to $50 in the first place. With a new smartphone costing the subscriber $60 a month, by BYOD to their network one could only save $10 a month – making it more attractive to pick up a new device on Rogers’ own network and less attractive to bring your device from elsewhere. Now that all three are in the same ballpark with the BYOD we will have to keep our eye on their next move.

Please hit us up on our Google+ Page and let us know how you deal with the BIG Three in Canada and what plan you are on…as always, we would love to hear from you.